MARKS

Marks, signs of being,
traces of Identity and Soul
etched memory, living symbols of those who, before words,
carved their essence into skin.

Each design holds meaning:
a scar on the cheek, a line on the brow,
dots across the chest, a map of belonging
to a group, a family, a village.
A bodily calligraphy, for recognition at first glance.

Marks, also spiritual
binding those who are alive to the ancestors,
offering protection from unseen forces, sealing sacred rites of passage.

Pain was the threshold
to courage, to inclusion, to adulthood.
Wounds dressed with herbs, charcoal, tradition.

The skin rose, healed, and carried forever a silent story.
An archaic practice?
A relic to honor as root?
In every line, a history, a choice.